Radio Script #364
Little Talks On Common Things
January 19, 1958
During the Civil War it was the custom of organizations of the various regiments to publish memorial charts giving the complete record of the personnel in each company of the regiment. In fact the lithography firm of Case, Watrad and Buker in Washington, D. C. made a good bit of money publishing these charts.
Of course, almost every survivor in the regiment, and many of their relatives, bought one. One of these Civil War charts is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Howard Charles of Oakland. At the top, above a cluster of flags, surmounted by an eagle with spread wings, are the words “Soldiers’ Memorial”. Around the margin are depicted such scenes as the soldiers’ departure from home, his encampment, a battle, and his return. There are three columns of names, over which are the words “Company G, 3rd Regiment, Maine Volunteers.
That company had been mustered into the U. S. service at Augusta on June 4, 1861. Its captain was Frank S. Hasseltine, who was later prorroted to major. The first lieutenant was Nathaniel Hanscom, who died on June 15, 1862. The second lieutenant rose in rank so that he too ended the war as a major.
The chart shows that, while the cORllany was originally composed of volunteers, its ranks, dep leted by casua Ities, were fi lied in 1863 by two conti ngents of drafted men. I wonder how those men felt to have their names placed on this memorial chart under the heading HDrafted Men”, and how the enlisted man felt to have them there. The distinction was very real in the 1860’s.
The people of this region, as we approach the lOOth anniversary of the openi ng of the Ci vi I War, have a pecu liar interest in Company G of the Thi rd Maine. That company was organized right here in Watervi lie on Apri I 30, 1861, scarcely two weeks after the fal I of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s first cal I for volunteers. They met and dri I led in Watervi I Ie preparing themselves for federal service. Five weeks after their organization, they reported at Augusta, where a regular army officer, Capt. Hight, mustered them into the Union Army.
On the following day, June 5, 1861, the company started for Washington, arriving there on the evening of the 8th. They entered a camp of instruction on Meridian Hi I I, where they remained unti I July 6, when they crossed the Potomac into Virginia. The company took part and suffered its first casualties in the First Battle of Bull Run, then unti I the spring of 1862 was on fatigue and picket duty in the vicinity of Alexandria, Virginia. During 1862 it was in many battles of the Peninsular Campaign. The whole army division to which it belonged had suffered so many losses by the spring of 1863 that it was absorbed into the Army of the Potomac.
This chart must have been published late in 1863 or early in 1864, more than a year before the war ended, because the last battle recorded as engaged in by the Third Maine was Locust Grove on November 27, 1863. But between First Bul I Run and Locust Grove this company of the Third Maine, which had been raised in Watervi lie and its immediate vicinity, took part in some of the most famous bettles of the war — Seven Pines, Mulvan Hi I I, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsvi lie and Gettysburg.
Some well known names dot the roster of Company G of the Third Maine:
George Drummond, Algenon Herrick, Edward Percival, Otis Pol lard, Horatio Reed, Charles Arnold, George Hassett, Atwood Crosby, Henry Sawtelle, Hiram Webber, Wi I liam Wyman, Moses Young and Asher Hinds.
What happened to those and many other young men is recorded on this memorial chart of Company G. Algenon Herrick was wounded at Second Bul I Run, taken prisoner at Gettysburg, and died at RiChmond, Virginia in October, 1863. Simon Groves was twice taken prisoner, first at Chancelorsvi I Ie, and again at Glen- dale. Twice he was exchanged. James Perry was wounded at First Bull Run, wounded again at Fredericksburg, and a third time at Gettysburg. Orin Austin, wounded at Chance lorsvi lie, was taken pri soner at Gettysburg and exchanged. He re-en listed as a Veteran Volunteer’ and was ki lied in Grant’s campa i gn in the Wi I derness.
As I said in the beginning, there are many of these old charts, probably one for every one of the hundreds of companies that went into the Civi I War in its first year, 1861. But it is of special interest to this program that one of the few sti II carefu II y preserved is that of Watervi lie’s own Company Gin the Th i rd Mai ne. And perhaps, best of a II, Mr. and Mrs. Charles have agreed to presenT th is chart to the Watervi I Ie Hi stori ca I Soci ety.
A few weeks ago I told you about our fi rst Mai ne history, Sui I ivan’s HHistory of the District of Maine”, and about the interesting map which was inserted in thaT book, published in 1795. have since encountered quite a di fferent map of Maine printed in exactly the same year. It is contained in an atlas owned for many years by the Britton fami Iy of Winslow, and now in the possession of a promi nent member of that fami Iy, Mrs. Henry Abbott of Watervi lie.
The atlas itself is entitled “Carey’s American Atlas H , containing twenty maps and one chart, engraved for and published by Mathew Carey of Phi ladelphia, No. 118 Market Street, 1795. Price, $5.00.
One of the twenty maps in that at I as is a map of Mai ne. It is a good sized map, 14 x 10 inches. I nteresti ng Iy enough, wh i Ie the map in Su II ivan’s Hi story is cal led the District of Maine, this one published in the same year is given the tiTle “The Province of Maine”. This would lead us to believe thaT Carey used an older map than Sullivan, if we did not find printed on the Carey map the words “from the best authorities, by Samuel Lewis, 1794″. Perhaps Carey simply used the old title that many people outside of New England sti r I used — the Provi nce of Ma i ne — a I though for some time before the independence of the nation Massachusetts had officially named the old province the District of Maine. If Carey had been a printer in Boston instead of Phi ladelphia in 1795, he would probably not have used the term, province.
The most i nteresti ng feature of the Ma i ne map in the Carey at I as is that it shows no northwestern boundary at a II. Where Mai ne ends and Canada begins, it is impossible to tell. The northeast boundary is clearly designated by a chain of rrounTains, which proved to be only partly there when actual surveys were I ater made, and those part Iy i mag i ned mounta ins are des i gnated as n line between the United States and the British Possessions by Treaty of 1785.” On the east there is a dotted line showing where Carey thinks the boundary ought to be, and it places that boundary considerably beyond the St. John River. To the east we find not New Brunswick, but the entire area marked Nova Scotia. In fact it is ha rd to recogn i ze th i s Carey map as a map of Ma i ne • The shape, except along the coastline, is all wrong, and the inland regions are almost wholly conjecTure, with distances distorted and today’s well known features of the landscape misplaced or omitted.
Although the Kennebec River is shown, quite accurately as far north as its juncture with the Wesserunsett at what is now Showhegan, beyond that point the dimensions are wrong. The juncture of the two branches at The Forks is shOtn only a few mi les from Skowhegan, and, strangest of all, Moosehead Lake is not shown at af I. Samuel Lewis, who Carey says was responsible for this map, could not have known of the journal and map of the British engineer, John Montressor, Which Arnold had used 20 years earlier. Montressor, on his journey from the headwaters of The Penobscot to the east branch of the Kennebec, covered the entire length of Moosehead Lake and described it clearly.
The northernmost inhabited place shown on this map, believe it or not, is Fort Hal ifax. The only other places naned on the Kennebec are Fort Western and Pownalboro. The total number of towns designated are exactly ten. Besides Pownalboro they are Belfast, York, Wei Is, Saco, Falmouth, Portland, Casco, Yarmouth and st. George.
There is something wrong about this, because there were many other incorporated towns in 1794, and in fact the map in Sullivan’s History gives several of them, but even that better map is not accurate. We must therefore conclude that, if one Samuel Lewis made this map, as Carey said, in 1794, he made it from very old sources, which antedated the incorporation of many towns. For in 1794 there were sUbstantial settlements at Scarboro, Brunswick, Waldoboro, Gouldsboro and Machias, as wei I as Gorham, Buxton, Bridgton, Woolwich, Georgetown, Bowdoinham,- Winthrop, Gardiner, Hallowell, Readfield, Vassalboro and ~linslow.
The map in the Carey atlas even omits Kittery, Maine’s first town. It ignores the historic KBnnebec town of Canaan, which was incorporated in 1788 and Norridgewock in the same year. In fact, instead of there being only ten towns, as the Carey map shows, there were 89 places in Maine large enough in 1794 to have received articles of incorporation. That very year both New Sharon and Farmington became recognized towns.
As we have said, decidedly I ittle about inland Maine had got on the map before 1800. The Rangeley Lakes, as well as Moosehead, are missing from the Carey map, with the exception of Lake Umbagog along the New Hampshire border.
What is meant for Sebago Lake, though unmarked, is shown sma Iler than Cobbossee~ .. contee, and its big feeders, Long Lake and Highland Lake, do not appear at al I. The juncture of the Sebasticook with the Kennebec at Fort Halifax is clearly shown, but the source of the Sebasticook, as well as the st. Croix, was utterly unknown to the map maker.
How much less Maine was known than was the rest of New England is revealed by a comparison of the map of Maine with that of New Hampshire in the Carey atlas.
Maine’s three counties of York, Cumberland and Lincoln are not shown at al I, whereas New Hampshire is plainly divided into the five counties of Cheshire, Hi I Isborough, Rockingham, Stratford and Grafton. The whole map is dotted with towns and straddled by roads. Even the northern communities of Colebrook and Stuartown are marked.
Readers of the old histories know that the early explorers to the Maine coast spoke of the White Hi I Is. Those, of course, were the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and it is interesting to read on the New Hampshire map in the Carey atlas these words: “The White Hi lis appear many leagues off at sea, ‘i ke white clouds just rising above the horizon tf •
As for roads, they ran not only across the state from Walpole to Portsmouth, from Winnepesaukee to Dover, from Hanover through London to Rochester, but the entire length of the state, north and south, from the Massachusetts line to Woodsvi lie, th i rty mi les north of Dartmouth Co liege. In amazi ng contrast, the map of Maine in that same atlas shows just one road in the entire district, from Pascataqua Harbor (actually from Kittery, although that town is not named) through York, Wei Is, Falmouth and Portland, Casco and Yarmouth, then across the Androscoggin (probably by ferry), and up the west side of Merrymeeting Bay to Fort Richmond opposite Pownalboro. Of course Maine had more roads than that in 1794. A road wide enough for ox carts ran from Gorham to Portland before 1780. By 1790 a road connected Buxton with Saco, and Bridgton had a”traveled route to Casco well before 1795.
What, in substance, have I been trying to show you by my detai led explanation of that old map? Just this: that no single map and no single description of old time Maine is to be trusted. One report and one map must be compared with another. The depictions must be checked against the known facts, and the result is often quite different from what the reporter or the map maker would have us be I ieve. But let us be fa i r. Those 0 I d cartographers di d pretty we II with the knc~.ledge they had available. The trouble was that, where their knowledge fai led, they were too wi Iling to guess. But anyhow it is interesting to see what even their imaginations conceived Maine to be like 160 years ago.
On some future broadcast I want to tel I you about some of the other information in the old Carey atlas of Mrs. Abbott’s, but for now we must say good night, for old time’s sake.
Year: 1958